Improving Business Performance for Owners and Tenants through Efficient Buildings

Energy efficiency is a driving force in making and keeping a business competitive and prosperous.

Investing in efficiency strengthens operations and equipment while lowering risks and reducing maintenance costs for buildings owners and property managers. Efficient buildings are also proven to increase net operating income (NOI) and make facilities more attractive to potential investors, buyers, and tenants. For tenants—who account for up to 70 percent of the energy used in commercial, retail, and industrial buildings—better building performance directly improves their business’ bottom line, contributes toward corporate sustainability goals and standards, and creates a more healthy and optimal work environment to help recruit and retain employees.

With competing priorities and other inherent barriers in traditional real estate transactions, building owners, managers, and the tenants that rent or own their spaces are rarely on the same page when it comes to investing in energy efficiency. Often, just knowing where to start is a challenge. To overcome the obstacles that stymie landlords and tenants from reaching higher performance together, IMT’s experts work hand-in-hand with both parties to strategically align incentives and develop collaborative and tailored approaches to maximize shared energy and dollar savings by:

Providing guidance on high-performance lease clauses and corporate documentation.
From small business tenants to large commercial real estate companies, IMT helps real estate and business professionals understand how sustainability strategies flow through the leasing process to add major financial and environmental value. We are a leading authority in North America for high-performance leasing, overseeing the comprehensive Green Lease Library and the industry-respected Green Lease Leaders program, which sets industry standards for green leases and recognizes property owners, tenants, and brokers who effectively modernize lease language to account for energy efficiency and sustainability.

Identifying cost-effective best practices and available smart technology for companies to install.

Active operational energy management combined with today’s available technology significantly reduces monthly utility costs and allows businesses to target and address what would otherwise be invisible energy and water waste in individual buildings and across portfolios. From energy benchmarking to plug load management, IMT works with real estate owners and tenants to identify and pursue the smartest and most cost-effective energy- and water-saving strategies & technologies.

Promoting innovative and applicable financing solutions that reduce upfront costs and create lasting change.The market for energy efficiency financing grows every year. Getting an energy project funded and off the ground is now more possible with promising finance solutions that range from energy savings performance contracts to legislatively authorized programs such as Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) and on-bill repayment. IMT offers free efficiency financing resources such as our internal and external financing guides for retailers, and we provide tailored one-on-one expert guidance to help businesses identify the best financing options to remove upfront costs and drive major returns on investment.

Want to know more?

Together, we can bolster energy savings, save money, improve market transparency to enable more-informed business decisions in buying and leasing space, and reap the many benefits of building efficiency.

Get your business’s energy future on track by reaching out to one of IMT’s experts to help you assess your real estate portfolio and receive technical guidance on today’s best energy efficiency practices, technology, and financing. Tenants and landlords alike are also encouraged to join IMT’s Landlord-Tenant Energy Partnership for cross-sector collaboration opportunities, resources, and support.

To learn about high-performance leasing, green building premiums, and more, visit our Resource Library to access an array of informative publications and tools, the Green Lease Library to access additional case studies and sample high-performance lease language, and the Green Lease Leaders website to learn more about brokers and real estate companies leading the field in overcoming the split incentive between tenants and landlords to unleash the power of efficiency via the lease.